My first tree peony ever began to bloom last week. Now my second one has opened its dark red buds!
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| Tree peony 'Wu Jin Yao Hui' |
Its name is 'Wu Jin Yao Hui', which means something like "Glittering Black Gold" in Chinese. I can't seem to capture the color accurately with my camera - it is a deeper wine-color in reality. The flowers have a sweet fragrance, but the scent is not nearly as strong as my white one, 'Xiang Yu'. (In peonies as in roses, stronger pigmentation tends to correlate with fainter fragrance.)
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| Tree peony 'Wu Jin Yao Hui' - 6-year old plant |
This is a 6-year old, which is still just a young'un for a tree peony. When it is older, the plant will of course be larger and have more flowers, but also the flower size should increase, and each flower should have more petals. Tree peonies sometimes have very differently shaped juvenile and adult flowers.
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| Tree peony 'Wu Jin Yao Hui' - bud opening |
Naturally, as soon as the flowers started opening it began pouring down rain. Hopefully we will have some cool dry weather now so these flowers will linger for a few days... but we all know that peonies are a fleeting joy.
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| Tree peony 'Wu Jin Yao Hui' |
I loved my peonies when I lived in the Midwest! Definitely a plant I envy, since the aren't a San Diego zone plant.
ReplyDeleteYou have plenty of plants growing in CA that we midwesterners envy too! I guess there is something beautiful that will grow almost everywhere.
DeleteThat is a nice looking plant with gorgeous blooms!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue, tree peonies are definitely my favorite plant! Now if only they bloomed for a bit longer...
DeleteYour peony is beautiful! I have one tree one too, they are so gorgeous, if only they grew a little faster :). Yours is really spectacular. Interesting comment about fragrance and color - actually I believe fragrance in roses is inversely correlated with vase life: the thicker the petals, the less fragrance. A lot of deep red roses (Gloire de Hollande, Etoile de Hollande, Mr. Lincoln, Oklahoma, Chrysler Imperial (I could go on and on)) have some of the strongest fragrance in rosedom :).
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts about petal thickness and fragrance... I'll have to check those roses out - I love fragrant roses!
DeleteI love the dark rich burgundy color...with such depth. I have one blooming and the others are budding. I look forward to those blooms.
ReplyDeleteThank Sage - I love the color too, and it's really much nicer in person! I hope you post some pics of your peonies on your blog - I can never get enough of them!
DeleteI always find deep red is a difficult color to photograph too. I found it interesting to learn that the flowers of the young plant are somewhat different from the mature plant. The flowers are beautiful and I like the red tint to the edges of the foliage. 6 years is a long time to wait for a plant to start to mature, but you are tempting me to try.
ReplyDeleteYou can speed up the process by buying an older plant (typically what is sold is 1-2 year olds) - but be prepared to shell out major dough!!
DeleteI've been waiting to see this! Thank you for sharing it! The flowers are gorgeous and I absolutely love the red edging to the leaves. What a treat!
ReplyDeleteThanks Shoe, I love the foliage of tree peonies almost as much as the flowers. It's interesting to me how varied the foliage is - I have 3 and they all have different color and shape to their leaves.
DeleteWhat a delight! Tree Peonies are so beautiful and this dark red one really looks stunning!
ReplyDeleteThank you katarina - the dark red color is my favorite too!
DeleteHi Spurge.... I have an unfortunate admission to make... despite really appreciating the comments you've left at my site, I just realized I had never visited yours. I know... it's terrible. This spring has been so insane I find myself working on posts at 2:00 a.m. to get published every few days and have had very little time to visit many sites at all. Tonight I was looking for info on the Finnish Rhodies, as I purchased two or three some years ago and had lost track of their names... up popped your very informative post and pictures which answered my questions about what I was growing. I am getting a renewed interest in rhododendrons, probably because I've so enjoyed my friend's collection in the southern part of the state.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, I've enjoyed looking through a number of your posts this evening and of course, had to become a follower so I can keep up with what's going on in your garden which I'm assuming must be in the Madison area, about 70 miles south of my own. Your tree peonies look wonderful!
Once again... I apologize for my lack of blogging etiquette and the loss was all mine!
Larry
No problem Larry - if I had your awesome garden I would never have need (or time) to go anywhere else! :-) (If any of you reading this have not seen Larry's site: GO THERE RIGHT NOW. Seriously. You will be truly amazed.)
DeleteYour finnish rhodies look great - if they do well further north I'm sure I can grow them too. Now the hard part - I have to pick only ONE! Argh.
Hello, Rebecca. You tree pion is wonderful. When it finish to bloom I like its leaves, so carving
ReplyDeleteThank you Nadezhda - I enjoy the tree peony foliage a lot too - not as much as the flowers of course!
DeleteI do like your Tree peonies, they don't do at all well in our garden although we have a few of the bush varieties which thrive.
ReplyDeleteOdd that they don't do well in your area - too wet perhaps? I though the bush and tree types preferred very similar environments, with the bush types being only a little more winter hardy. There are some peony types which are too tender to be grown in my area, which makes me sad because of course I want to grow ALL of them! :-)
DeleteI just bought this peony and planted it bareroot in my garden after I saw your beautiful photos. Is it darker in person than in the pictures? I just wonder it it is as dark as Buckeye Belle peony. Can you give me some tips on growing this beautiful tree peony? Thank you in advance.
ReplyDeleteI've seen 'Buckeye Belle' and it's so dark it's almost a blackish-brown. 'Wu Jin Yao Hui' is definitely much lighter - an even prettier color because more red, imho.
DeleteI'm pretty new at growing tree peonies too so not an expert! The tips I read everywhere are 1) drainage, drainage, drainage - they hate water-logged soil and 2) good air circulation to avoid fungal disease. If you build a raised bed or mound and give them some sun they should be easy to please! Tree peonies are super tough mountain survivors. Enjoy!